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Sunday, March 22, 2015

Nashville Beer: A Heady History of Music City Brewing

Middle Tennessee has had a turbulent history of brewing craft beer.
Before Prohibition, it was once a thriving industry, then there were
many dark years without any local breweries, whatsoever. Nashville Beer: A Heady History of Music City Brewing, explores the different eras of
craft beer that helped brew a culture and build a thriving city.
Food, Drink, and Travel Writer Chris Chamberlain begins the book by examining the area’s brewing history during the 19th century.

Once Nashville was designated as the state capital, many German
immigrants moved there, bringing with them different brewing styles.
Craft beer was produced locally, but some Midwestern beer was shipped
and distributed to the area, as well. During that time, there were
multiple breweries within the area, including Nashville Brewery, Spring
Water Brewery, Rock City Brewery and Nashville Union Brewery, to name a
few. Although the downtown Nashville brewery changed names many times
over within it’s first 30 years of production, it was most successful
when it was known as The William Gerst Brewing Company.

William H. Gerst was a pioneer in the brewing industry and was also
known as the king of advertising. He promoted a variety of his beers at
the Tennessee State Fair and Centennial Exposition, gained lots of
attention for creating cone-top cans and labeled it as “Brewed in
Dixie,” before Prohibition practically shut down the brewery. Gerst lost
his desire to brew malt beverages, near beers and other non-alcoholic
drinks (Cola-Pepsin, Imperial Ginger Ale, sodas) during Prohibition,
paving the way for his four sons to take over the brewery.

Once Prohibition ended and Gerst beer was back to being brewed once
more; eventually, Pabst, Miller and Anheuser-Bush overcrowded the
market, squeezing out the little guys. The brewery was sold to different
investors and eventually, Gerst closed its doors in 1954 and the
Nashville beer scene practically died for almost 30 years.

“The door was wide open for any entrepreneurs who might want to brew a
beer that demonstrated any level of complexity superior to the watery
light lagers that had become the darlings of the uneducated palates of
Nashvillians.”

Once new Tennessee beer laws introduced legal brewpubs to the public,
Bohannon Brewing Company, Blackstone Brewing Company, Big River and
Boscos Restaurant and Brewing Company all invigorated the area with
varying degrees of success. This became the second craft-beer era for
Middle Tennessee.

And the current craft-beer era for Nashville and its surrounding
areas is the biggest and best of them all. In fact, all 14 breweries
that opened in Middle Tennessee since 1994 still operate today. That is a
huge success. As of 2014, when the book was published, all of the local
breweries are represented, including but not limited to Yazoo,
Jackalope, Turtle Anarchy, Fat Bottom, Mayday, Tennessee Brew Works and
Little Harpeth. Each brewer took different paths to open their brewery
and each one has a great backstory.

Out-of-town breweries that have contributed to Middle Tennessee’s
craft-beer culture are also included, along with contract brews, future
beer projects and failed breweries, but each of these topics are only
touched upon. I would have liked a little more information on each of
these subjects, but specifically those failed breweries of Middle
Tennessee. Surely there’s more than just a few that have recently
failed.

Nashville Beer, as a book, provides great source material, but some
of the information is outdated. Since the book was printed, Boscos
closed, Yazoo now cans its beer and some brewers no longer work at their
previous breweries. While not all breweries get the same page count (or
the same number of pictures included), Mr. Chamberlain truly emphasizes
the local-beer angle of being a Tennessee brewery.

The highlight of the book is learning the history of each of the
breweries that have inhabited Nashville and its surrounding areas. I
would have preferred a little more backstory behind each of the current
breweries, but that’s just a minor complaint.

With homebrewing clubs and beer festivals promoting the local
craft-beer scene, along with changes in a triple-layer beer tax and the
development of Tennessee Craft Brewer’s Guild into an important lobbying
group, the sky is the limit with no end in sight for local breweries to
grow bigger and better, with each passing year.

Order Nashville Beer: A Heady History of Music City Brewing on Amazon here.